Sub 2:00 Half Marathon thread (Read 2396 times)

miele


Godzilla

    jan-  Cheesecake is gone but tomorrow we're making banana bread pudding.  Yum.  Your friend did great!  I think I'll stick with my training.  (It sure would be nice to have a 10 minute PR, though).  I'm following Hal Higdon's multiple marathons plan.  http://www.halhigdon.com/training/51153/Marathon-Multiple-Marathons-Training-Program  

    I also read Jim2's article on multiple marathons and, basically, you won't lose fitness in 6 weeks so it's not necessary to build up to the full mileage you were running before the first marathon.  It's more important to recover.

    http://www.hillrunner.com/jim2/id57.html

     I will add mileage to get to the recommended 75% of peak training then follow a 2 week taper.  I know Pfitz has a plan, too, but I didn't bring my book with me.  I'll check to see if I can find it online.

     

    2ft-  What a nice surprise for your DW!   Very thoughtful.  When are you going to tell her?  Good luck tomorrow in your 10 mile race!  I have a feeling you'll be itching to run fast.  I'm going to start back at the gym next week, too.  After all this cheesecake and bread pudding I'll need to work extra hard.

     

    Nathan-  Holy cow!  I checked out the elevation and it looks absolutely horrible!  I'm very bad at visualizing just how steep terrain is from a chart or from something like, 'a gain of 150 feet over a quarter mile'.  I can't process it.  That graph, on the other hand, looks like there are vertical climbs.   I think you did extremely well on that course.  But I'm begging you to pick a flatter race next time!  You'd get all kinds of PRs.  I think I'm the same way in that my cardio might be ahead of the muscles.

     

    me-  Monday is the big day.  I'll start running and working out again.  I'm looking forward to getting back into it.  It's 75 here with 80% humidity. It should be interesting.

    10K: 47:12* / 13.1: 1:50:56 / 26.2: 3:53:48

     

                

    Jan26.2


      miele - I don't think I've ever had banana bread pudding, but it sure sounds yummy! I love reading Jim 2's articles - I always learn something worthwhile. Are you still visiting your parents? Where do they live? I didn't think the 80% humidity sounded like California. Have fun at the gym tomorrow.

       

      Nathan - Great job! I have trouble with charts too, but from what I could figure out, you sure went up a lot during the race. Which muscles are the sorest right now?

       

      2ft - Your wife is going to be so happy with your surprise! What a sweet, thoughtful thing to do. If my DH ever surprised me with a trip I'd probably drop dead on the spot from the shock. I hope the race went well - we need a RR!

       

      me - We did 6 miles yesterday in the ridiculous wind. Towards the end of our run we were headed straight into it and I couldn't breathe - at all. I have a head cold, so was breathing through my mouth anyway. The cold air got into my lungs and squeezed all the air out of them. Today it's 8 degrees with a wind chill of -9, so I got friendly with my treadmill for 10 miles. After the first 5, it wasn't too bad.

      PR's: 5k - 23:33/ 10k - 48:30/ 5 mi. - 39:21/ 13.1 - 1:53/ 26.2 recent - 4:34

       

      Upcoming races: Resolution Run HM 1/1/13

                                  Phoenix R&R    HM 1/20/13

        Jan, Miele: before you give your respective DH grief, you should know that it is ultra rare that  I do this sort of thing, and my wife is always complaining that I never buy her flowers (just not a flowers sort of guy) I am going to see if I can maintain the suspense until we get to the airport on the day of departure, but if I see the torture is too much, I may put the tickets in an enveloppe under the Xmas tree.

         

        Have you ladies fixed any races as objectives yet?  You may have said already, but I have a really bad memory / sometimes miss the posts. Would be great (for me, anyway) if you could put the objectives / future races in your signatures, but I would understand if you find that a little ostentatious and not like that sort of thing.

         

        Me: Regarding today's 10-mile race: I was actually feeling some tightness in the lower calf of the left leg. Not sure if this was coming from the 8 x 100m strides I had done during the week, or from overdoing the eccentic calf stretches. In addition, going to the race would have eaten up most of my Sunday, and I do have some work to do this afternoon, before settling down to Dexter and Homeland in the evening. So I decided to just do my scheduled 9-mile general aerobic scheduled on the Pfitz recovery plan. Ended up doing  little under 11m, at 9:06 which is my GMP. That included a 9:33 warm-up mile and two 8:45 miles towards the end. It was nice to put in a sustained moderate effort, instead of the daily dose of recovery I've been doing the past 2-3 weeks. AHR 146 with most in 148/150 range at the end,  as opposed to 137/138 for recovery, and 141/143 for "general aerobic". Pleased I made the choice.

        Decided on a mini-training program for a Jan 1st 5K: put in some 30-35 mile weeks, and next week inject a LT run, the following week intervals at 5K goal pace (4:48/km for a 24:00), and then shorter intervals of same intensity the week before the race. I then have a 10K in Central Park on Jan 5th and Manhattan Half on Jan 27th. Both courses are hilly, so not expecting any PR, but gives me some intermediary goals other than the distant May 5th... 

        Speaking of hills, wondering how you tackle hills in your runs. I feel that, relatively speaking, I am stronger in hills than on the flat; and whenever I am in a hill, I cannot help "giving it some more".  

        Personal bests (bold = this year): 5K - 23:27 / 5M - 38:42 / 10K - 49:31 (track) / 10M - 1:24:26 / HM - 1:51:17 / M - 3:58:58

        Next races: NYC Marathon, Nov 2014 

        doctorjen


          Decided to put my 5K race report over here, too.  Apologies if that means you have to skip over it since you read at RWOL already!

           

           RR for the Jingle Bell Run 5K

          On the 17th day of the Holiday Streak, my true love brought to me, a shiny new 5K PR!  Ok, so, it's not too catchy - but it sure sounds good to me!

          I joined a friend, her 14 year old daughter who runs high school cross country as a freshman, and the daughter's boyfriend who is a really good soccer player (tried out for the Olympic development team yesterday) for the underground 5K today.  I don't really know how to describe this place and I don't know what it is actually used for, but it sort of looked like a giant underground parking garage to me.  You had to park about a mile up the road, and then they had shuttle buses taking people to the start.  Apparently there were more folks than they expected, so to allow all the buses to get there, they delayed the start 15 minutes.  I'd wanted to warm up, but it was tight quarters in the start area, and I wasn't able to get free and run some.  I did do something I don't usually do, and pushed my way to near the front.  There were lots of obvious walkers, and I didn't want to get caught behind them.  This worked pretty well, as I crossed the start 7 seconds after the horn sounded and had pretty clear running space as soon as I crossed the start.  My garmin didn't work underground of course, so I didn't have much to go on for pacing.  I tried to run faster than my tempo pace, without completing sprinting.  The whole thing is very flat.  I'm so used to my hilly neighborhood, I almost felt like I was running downhill the whole time!  

          I hit my lap button at the first mile marker - 7:13!  I haven't run a mile that fast since high school.  I was worried that was too fast.  Or maybe the mile marker was wrong?  Oh well, nothing to do now but keep running.  There were lots of turns in this race, and I have no idea what the actual route looked like.  We turned right, we turned left, we turned right again.  I just kept following the people ahead of me.  Around 1 1/2 miles, I started passing walkers who were still on their first lap.  Fortunately, there were lots of course marshalls out instructing the walkers to stay right, and everyone seemed for once to follow the instructions.

          Mile 2, lap 7:22.  I'm definitely starting to feel it now.  I don't normally run anywhere near this fast. The first 2 miles, there'd been enough people ahead of me to catch, or passing me, that I had something to concentrate on, but by now, people have mostly sorted themselves out and there were no changes in position.  We are passing tons of walkers now, and it's mostly ok but the corners are a little hairy.  Without the garmin distance, I'm not real sure where I'm at, but soon we make a turn and I realize the 3 mile mark is up ahead.  I try to pick up the pace, but man am I tired at this point.  Not sure I picked it up all that much, if any!  We turn one more corner and I can see the finish clock - it hasn't turned 24 yet!  My fastest for sure 5K was 24:52, although I ran 24:08 in October on a course I wasn't positive was a full 5K.  Now, I sprint the last little bit and I cross the finish line in 23:36! 

          Final results: 23:36.  3/105 in my age group (40-44), although I actually got the 2nd place medal because a 42 year old woman won the race overall.  15/691 for women, 79/1021 overall.  I think my last mile was over 8 mins, so maybe I need to still work on my pacing, but for a new PR at 41 years of age, I'll take it!

          Jan26.2


            2ft - I think you made a good call on not doing the race. You never know when a little ache or tightness could turn into something more if you push it. You ended up with a good solid run. Looks like you've got some great race plans, and have the training figured out too. Nice! As for hills, I seem to attack them too, and in races that's where I pass a lot of people. I'm one of those weird people who likes to do hill repeats, or run hilly routes. When I hurt my knee last January it took awhile before I could do much fast running, but I could do hills and they definitely made me stronger once I got back to the flats and could add the speed back in.

             

            docjen - CONGRATS!!! Great PR. It sounds like the race was definitely unusual, but it's one I think I'd love to try. Do you think sometimes you run faster without Garmin? I wonder if you would have had pace info, when you saw the 7:13 mm, if your mind would have said "Hey, slow down!" When I got my half PR 3 weeks before my marathon, I was cruising along feeling pretty good, looked at Garmin and saw a 7:30 pace and I immediately slowed down, thinking I was going too fast and would hurt something. If I wouldn't have looked at Garmin I wouldn't have worried about it. Congrats on the AG placing too! Since your marathon, I think you've set a PR in about every distance. Have you done a recent 10k? If not, find one, cause you'll kill it!

             

            DH is downstairs on the TM right now, and I'll bet he stays on for10 miles. When I told him I had done 10 earlier, I could tell that wasn't what he wanted to hear, but he can't stand for me to do more miles than him. Joking

             

            2ft - Almost forgot - my next race is a virtual half, the last one of the 3-race series I'm doing. Has to be done before Jan. 1st. After that I've got the Phoenix R&R half on Jan. 20th. Nothing officially scheduled for Feb. and March yet, but hopefully I can find a half to do each month. My goal is to run a half every month. I'll try and put something in my signature line.

            PR's: 5k - 23:33/ 10k - 48:30/ 5 mi. - 39:21/ 13.1 - 1:53/ 26.2 recent - 4:34

             

            Upcoming races: Resolution Run HM 1/1/13

                                        Phoenix R&R    HM 1/20/13

            miele


            Godzilla

              jan- It's just regular bread pudding with bananas sliced into it.......practically a health food.  Yes, I'm still visiting my parents who live in Florida.  I'll be here for a while so hopefully I'll acclimate to the humidity (although I say this every year but it never seems to happen).  Did your DH run 10 like you thought he would?  

               

              2ft-  You definitely did the right thing by skipping the race.  Why risk it?  You've got quite a few races coming up, anyway, so better safe than injured.   As you can see, I managed to put some info in the sig. line.  I always like looking at people's PRs and upcoming races so it was a good suggestion.  I didn't understand why they removed them on RWOL.   Be sure and let us know what happens concerning the Vegas trip.  Will you be able to keep it a secret till the airport or not?  I think the fact that you do this kind of thing so rarely makes it that much more special.   She might faint.  

               

              doc-  What a race!  Congrats on the new PR and AG award!  I don't know why but I picture the scene as being dark with mysterious water dripping from cracks in the ceiling.  How did your friend and the kids do?

               

              me-  Finally figured out the avatar thing.  Ran 4 miles today and the legs felt sluggish and heavy but it also felt good to be out there running again.  Tomorrow I'm going to try for 6 but if I'm not feeling it I'll cut it short.  

              10K: 47:12* / 13.1: 1:50:56 / 26.2: 3:53:48

               

                          

              oriwoi


                .
                kaylash


                  My first 1/2 was November 2011 and I ran a 2;04. My second was this past October and I ran a 2:02 (had to take of 4-5 weeks during my training because of an injury, which hindered my running.) My goal then was to run under 2 hours. Had I not taken off time from running I feel like I could have met my goal. Anyway, my next 1/2 - the one I want to go under 2 is in March. I'm running one in February as a "warm up." This will also be the first time I'm running it by myself. My husband has run the last two with me (and pacing me.) That's what I'm worried about - my pace. Well, that, and not slowing down or giving up. I have to dig deep when I'm running long distance to find that motivation. The course I'm running in March is a flat course and one that lots of people PR on so I'm excited...but nervous to run a 13.1 race for the first time without my "coach" by my side. I just really, really, really want to do well and to show my husband that I can do it without him by my side pushing me along. 

                    My sub-2 HM came after reading a strategy posted here.  I went out for a 5 mile run, another 5 mile run, and then a 5k.  I remember around mile 3, my body said that I couldn't keep up that pace for 10 more miles, but my head said to shut up, I was only running 2 more miles.  Then at mile 10, body said I'm tired and gonna walk; my head said that I was just starting a 5k and I needed to start redlining it.   Good luck to all on breaking 2 hours.

                      Two 6mile easy runs this week plus a 3m tempo run on Friday. Ran at 8:14, and 153/154 AHR. Checked afterwards to see what my HR should be for a tempo / lactate threshold run, and it was 152-154, so it would seem I was running at the right pace. First speed workout since the marathon. Felt good to blow away the cobwebs! Also went to gym this morning, first time for about 5 weeks (since week 1 of taper).

                      Personal bests (bold = this year): 5K - 23:27 / 5M - 38:42 / 10K - 49:31 (track) / 10M - 1:24:26 / HM - 1:51:17 / M - 3:58:58

                      Next races: NYC Marathon, Nov 2014 

                      Jan26.2


                        2ft - You had a good week of running. Did you have any left over soreness from the marathon? I've never tried HR training, so it's all pretty much a mystery to me.

                         

                        pink2 - I like your sub-2 strategy. Our minds seem to limit our speed much more than our bodies.

                         

                        kaylash - You'll be fine without your hubby pacing you. You've improved your time with each half, and 2:02 is so close. Just stay focused, don't go out too fast, and you've got it.

                         

                        miele - Yep, DH had to do 10 that day when he found out that's what I did. After he was done and whined about doing in on the TM I had to mess with him and tell him I really did 12. The look on his face was priceless! I did tell him the truth - eventually. I hope your legs are feeling normal again post-marathon. When do you have to kick in back in for Mobile?

                         

                        me - Finally got outside today for 13 miles. The temps were in the mid 30s and the winds in the teens, but it felt good to be off the TM. I ended the week with 44 miles, and my legs were feeling it today. This coming week is a cut-back week for mileage - no complaints here!

                        PR's: 5k - 23:33/ 10k - 48:30/ 5 mi. - 39:21/ 13.1 - 1:53/ 26.2 recent - 4:34

                         

                        Upcoming races: Resolution Run HM 1/1/13

                                                    Phoenix R&R    HM 1/20/13

                          Hi Jan,

                           

                           All the soreness has gone. I like to run by HR rather than pace. Keeping a steady pace is pretty much impossible, especially with a GPS watch, but I find it fairly easy to run at a constant HR. But in this particular case, I didn't look at the HR until after the race; I was doing laps on a track so I just needed to check the timer. 

                           

                          For distance, I find the Garmin very accurate on straight lines, but when I do 4 x 400 on the track, which is about 10 yards short of a mile, it always shows 1.01 or 1.02 miles. I have now figured out that in order to know the average pace I am running at, I just have to add 10 seconds.

                           

                          I guess you will be in taper mode soon for the half. Not quite as crazy as marathon taper, but 10-14 days taking it a little easier has a lot to be said for it

                          Personal bests (bold = this year): 5K - 23:27 / 5M - 38:42 / 10K - 49:31 (track) / 10M - 1:24:26 / HM - 1:51:17 / M - 3:58:58

                          Next races: NYC Marathon, Nov 2014 

                          miele


                          Godzilla

                            kay-  You'll do great.  You've still got a lot of training time before your race(s).  Do you run your LRs with your DH?  If you do, perhaps you could try running them alone every now and then.   If you're feeling good towards the end of the LR try for a fast finish.  Like the final 3 miles towards your HM pace.  That'll help your confidence.  You just have to stay focused, like Jan says, more than if you have a pacer.  

                             

                            pink-  Congrats on your sub-2!  I like that strategy, too, although I tend to do mental cartwheels with my strategy and apply several to one race.  It makes no sense and I don't recommend what I do but it almost boils down to doing math while I run.  I guess it just keeps my mind occupied since I can't do math while I run.

                             

                            2ft-  Nice tempo.  Glad the legs are back to normal.  I'm having a weird sensation when I run.  It's like my timing is off and I feel a bit awkward.   It's not unusual since I have this feeling after every marathon but I was wondering if you felt that, too.  I've never noticed the discrepancy with the Garmin on the track but I tend to run in the outside lane.

                             

                            Jan-  Oh, that's too funny!  Well, at least you know how to motivate him.   Legs are feeling better but still a bit sluggish and awkward.  I'll get over it.  I'm leaving soon for Mobile and I'll sign up in the next few days.   You had a nice mileage week!  And a 13 miler outside!  Excellent.  Enjoy the cutback.

                             

                            me-  Ran 12 today.  At mile 5 I was thinking I still had such a long way to go and my legs are so tired.  But I knew they could carry me through to the end.  I'm heading out for Mobile which means I will be out of touch for a while.  MIL has no connection although I might go to a cafe at some point.  Have a good weekend, everyone!

                            10K: 47:12* / 13.1: 1:50:56 / 26.2: 3:53:48

                             

                                        

                              Hi Miele, I didn't have that feeling after the marathon, but I did have a similar feeling back in May when I was following the Ryan Hall HM training program: it was as if I was misfiring, if that makes any sense. I reduced speed work and that resolved it

                              Personal bests (bold = this year): 5K - 23:27 / 5M - 38:42 / 10K - 49:31 (track) / 10M - 1:24:26 / HM - 1:51:17 / M - 3:58:58

                              Next races: NYC Marathon, Nov 2014 

                              Jan26.2


                                How did this weekend's racers do?

                                 

                                Last weekend I finally was able to get outside twice - one 13 miler followed by a 5 miler. Back to the TM this week - right now we've got 12+ inches of snow on the ground and it's still coming down. Wyoming - ugh! Registering for a January half probably wasn't the best idea, even if we're running it in Phoenix. Still have to train in Wyo.

                                PR's: 5k - 23:33/ 10k - 48:30/ 5 mi. - 39:21/ 13.1 - 1:53/ 26.2 recent - 4:34

                                 

                                Upcoming races: Resolution Run HM 1/1/13

                                                            Phoenix R&R    HM 1/20/13